The Wheel of Fortune has been an iconic show for the better part of a century. At this point, generations of fans have watched contestants spin the colorful wheel and try to solve the puzzle, all in the name of winning fabulous prizes.
Of course, anyone who thinks about Wheel of Fortune also must think about Pat Sajak. This veteran TV entertainer has been hosting the show since Chuck Woolery left in late 1981. And it’s difficult to imagine the show succeeding at all without Sajak’s presence.
However, it looks like we won’t have to simply imagine a show without Sajak. According to him, he may be stepping down soon from his longtime television duty. When and why is Sajak stepping down, and what are some of his craziest moments with the show? Let’s find out!
‘The end is near’
It was likely an attempt at a joke, but Sajak made things sound downright apocalyptic about him leaving Wheel of Fortune. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, he discussed how “the end” was, in fact, “near.” “Years go by fast. We’re getting near the end. It’s been a long [time]. We’re not gonna do this for another 40 years. The end is near,” he said. “It’s an honor to have been in people’s living rooms for that long. People were out there welcoming us. We’re happy and proud.”
Before that, though, he expressed a good sense of humor about the show that made his career outliving him. “In most television shows, by this time you would have said, ‘That’s probably enough,’ but this show will not die, he said. “It appears I may go before the show.”
It’s definitely going to be difficult to find someone to step into Sajak’s shoes. Which is ironic considering that in the early days, the network didn’t even want him!
Early troubles with the network
Wheel of Fortune was created by Merv Griffin, and he dropped some real bombshells about the show in his book Making the Good Life Last. Perhaps the biggest bombshell was that in the early days, the network had no interest in letting Sajak host the show.
Back in those days, Sajak was only a weatherman, but Griffin loved his sense of humor and felt Sajak would make a great game show host. The network’s head of daytime television (the show was originally a daytime one) rejected hiring Sajak. Eventually, Griffin began threatening to stop taping the show at all unless the network let Sajak host. The network agreed, and the rest is television history.
Partying with Vanna White
Sajak isn’t the only famous face associated with Wheel of Fortune. Vanna White also became famous as the cute gal turning the letters over when contestants put forth their guesses. White and Sajak have enjoyed a great bond over the years. One reason for this may be that the two have a long history of partying together!
We know this thanks to an interview that Sajak gave with ESPN2. There, the host offered Sajak a very blunt question: did he ever do the show while intoxicated? Amazingly, Sajak gave an equally blunt response. “Yes. When I first started and was much younger and could tolerate those things. We had a different show then.”
How did this partying go down? According to Sajak, they had dinner breaks that lasted nearly three hours because they had to wait for prizes like new cars and boats to be put in place for the show. Their preferred dinner spot was a Mexican restaurant across the street that made killer margaritas. “So Vanna and I would go across and have two or three and six and then come and do and the last shows and have trouble recognizing the alphabet.”
Sajak: holding a torch for America
It’s one thing to simply say that Pat Sajak and Vanna White are pop culture icons, but it’s another thing to see it. And these two were arguably at the height of their powers in 1996 when they carried the Olympic torch for America.
This was for that year’s Summer Games in Atlanta. As the Washington Post reports, the torch was primarily held by “Community and Local Heroes.” The fact that Sajak and White were asked to carry the torch at all is a powerful illustration of how the public viewed them.
Hard to replace
With Sajak openly talking about retirement, there have been many discussions about how hard he will be to replace. Interestingly, though, this is something the network already knew. And that’s because they had to replace him once before.
Back in 1990, Sajak tried to expand his career with a short-lived evening talk show called (what else?) The Pat Sajak Show. At the time, Wheel of Fortune aired in both the daytime and the evenings. “Nighttime” talk shows are always filmed during the day, so Sajak still hosted at night. But the network was left scrambling to try to find a replacement host for the daytime show.
The first attempt at a replacement was San Diego Chargers kicker Rolf Benirschke. Unfortunately, he knew little about the game or how it was played, and he was quickly fired. The next attempt at a replacement was veteran game show host Bob Goen, who later discussed how awkward the whole thing was in a Facebook interview with the Slow Boat to the Land of Parting Gifts website. “We were the poor stepsister to the night-time syndicated version with Pat and Vanna,” he said. “They were making millions and giving away BMWs, while we were stuck with $50 spaces on the wheel and giving away GEO Metros. It was a bit of an embarrassment, and I think, the ultimate demise of my version of the show.”
In fact, the network ultimately killed the daytime version of the show altogether because that was easier than finding a good replacement for Sajak. Now that he is talking about the end of hosting the nighttime version, we can’t help but wonder how much more difficult he will be to replace.